Customer loyalty is a desired objective of all businesses. As such, businesses are continuously searching for ways to keep their customers coming back. For businesses in highly competitive industries, customer loyalty is often vital to the success of the business.
However, for businesses mainly selling common consumable products, this is a particularly difficult problem. In such industries, price is often the force driving customer purchases and, consequently, customer loyalty tends to be low. Accordingly, businesses in these industries are particularly interested in means for generating repeat business.
One means of accomplishing this is to provide a consumable product, which cannot be replenished by others. However, as stated previously, this is particularly difficult to accomplish when dealing with common consumables. For instance, film processing services are widely available and, for the most part, are virtually indistinguishable from one business to another. Thus, consumers tend to choose film processing services based on price. Accordingly, film processing services are constantly searching for means to guide consumers back into their stores.
One such device developed to address this need is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,085 to Cloutier. Cloutier discloses a rental camera having an auxiliary key structured to open the film and battery reloading doors and to initiate the camera rewind mechanism. Although somewhat useful for its intended purpose, the Cloutier camera includes certain inherent limitations which limit its overall effectiveness. First, the Cloutier locking mechanism includes a fairly specific and complicated structure, which is not easily adaptable to existing camera configurations. Additionally, the Cloutier locking mechanism is specifically designed for a camera rear door and is not structured for use with, and does not contemplate use with, APS cameras, in which access to the film cartridge is, typically, via a port in the bottom of the camera under the film cartridge compartment.
Accordingly, there is still a need in the art for a locking mechanism for APS cameras, which limits the ability to remove and replace the film cartridge to those having the proper key. Any such system should be easily adaptable to existing camera structures and easy to operate. The present invention is particularly suited to overcome those problems remaining in the art in a manner not previously known.
The present invention is directed towards a new and improved APS camera having means for limiting removal and replacement of the film cartridge to those designated to do so. The camera includes an access door to provide access to a film cartridge receiving compartment. A latch disposed on the exterior sidewall of the camera main body, adjacent the film cartridge receiving compartment, secures the access door in the closed position. A lock mechanism, comprising an outer housing and an inner lever disposed within the outer housing, is secured to an exterior sidewall of the camera casing over the latch. The lever is structured for movement from a first blocking position, wherein the latch is inaccessible, to a second open position, wherein the latch may be accessed and the access door opened. The lever includes a pair of outwardly extending locking pins structured for mating engagement with corresponding holes in the housing so as to retain the lever in the first blocking position. Pushing the locking pins down through the holes in the housing enables the lever to be moved into the second open position. A key is provided to push the pins down through the holes in the housing and to engage and move the latch from the first latching position to the second unlatching position.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved camera having all of the advantages of the prior art and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an APS camera having locking means for limiting the ability to remove and replace the film cartridge.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide such a camera, which includes an external tool for unlocking the film cartridge compartment access door.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a system, which is easily adaptable to existing camera structures.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a system, which is easy to operate.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in the description which follows.